Highly scalable, high-bandwidth applications such as voice over IP (VoIP) systems frequently utilize Internet Protocol (IP) multicast technologies to efficiently distribute audio communications amongst large numbers of users. While an extremely efficient use of available network bandwidth, configuration of the IP multicast infrastructure can be an administratively intensive task requiring the cooperation and coordination of numerous stakeholders and their organizations. As the distribution of IP multicast data becomes even more widespread within an organization and between organizations, the administrative task increases exponentially, resulting in increased costs and time being incurred to set up and maintain the network infrastructure.
The issue of network infrastructure maintenance becomes even more complex and time-consuming when the distribution of IP multicast data is required over Wide Area Networks (WANs)—as opposed to the (relatively) simple task of distributing such IP multicast traffic over Local Area Networks (LANs).